Growing Wings: Young Women Entrepreneurs

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Growing Wings

From Young Heiresses to Young Women Entrepreneurs

Three women, all grown-up ‘daddy’s little girls’, who have come into their own, taking charge of their domain with knowledge, experience and skill to back them.

UpperCrust picks three young ladies who may have powerful fathers in the Hospitality and F&B industry but are young entrepreneurs in their own right today, taking the mantle forward as they go along. Keep an eye on them, they are sure to go places!

Samyukta Nair

Head, Design & Operations, The Leela Hotels;
CEO/Founder, Jamavar, London

There is an air to Samyukta Nair that spells ingenuity with structure, passion with a plan and a mind all her own. The young lady of the fabled Leela Hotels family puts her fashionable foot forward as she steps into the artistic and business arena of the hotel group and beyond. Head of Design & Operations at The Leela and Founder & CEO of Jamavar, London, sky’s the limit for Samyukta, the young daughter of Dinesh & Madhu Nair. Certainly not a daddy’s daughter, taking over the baton, so on and so forth… Sam powers through, determined on setting herself apart as an entrepreneur to reckon with. Though all along holding both parents and her grandfather as her highest inspirations and never forgetting to thank the one above for granting her the “ovarian lottery!”


Karishma Grover

Associate Winemaker, Grover Zampa Vineyards

India’s rich wine legacy lies in the cellars of greats such as Grover Zampa Vineyards, nurtured in the hands of the Grover family with care and expertise since 1992. Karishma Grover holds the reins today while dad Kapil beams proud. Wine is a glass apart. To enter and take charge in this unique industry, unlike any other alcohol and beverage segment, is setting yourself up for a challenging life ahead, running against the clock and keeping pace with the evolving terms of the grape and a connoisseur’s palate. Above all, you have to lose yourself in every sip and let passion take you over, else it’s a mission unaccomplished. A winemaker’s mission, that is, to know your vineyards and tend to each grape as a shepherd would his flock. Karishma Grover has it flowing through her veins and has stepped into the role of winemaker at Grover Zampa with elan, equipped with the technical knowledge to keep her abreast with the fast-paced production of the vino industry. She celebrates a decade already, at the ripe age of 33!

 

Avni Biyani

CEO, Future Group; Concept Head, Foodhall

Meet Avni, the youngest daughter of Kishore Biyani, the man with the Midas touch, the razor sharp king of retail. Coming from where Avni does explains her go-getter-ness and the zeal for the fetching financial numbers coursing through her mind; runs in the blood. A student of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Avni graduated in Sociology and Politics from New York University. Apart from her interest in liberal arts and humanities, from early times food has been her mainstay. With a fair amount of exposure to the art of fine dining, internationally, being as extensive a traveller as she is, as well as the fact that she loves to cook, Foodhall probably was just waiting to happen. Avni is only 30, which means she was all of 21 when Foodhall, the amazing gourmet store was launched by her dad in 2011. Now barely nine years later, it is daddy’s lil’ girl who is single-handedly running the show, with a wee bit of help from him.